Column Overview

In a pop-up menu fill in the following points: column name, column type and kind of column.

Let’s have a closer look at each of the points:

Column Name - in order to better differentiate your tasks, you can set up a name for each of your columns, e.g. you can have columns Design, Development, Testing on your Kanban board.

Column Type - there are 3 types of columns:

To Do - all tasks to be done, tasks under review;

In Progress - tasks being executed now;

Done - complete tasks.

In Progress Column can be of 2 kinds:

Simple

Composite.

If you would like to edit the column just click on its name. Edit pop-up window will appear on your screen. Make all the necessary changes and choose the option Save Changes

Column Types

There are 3 types of columns in Hygger:

To Do - all tasks to be done, tasks under review;

In Progress - tasks being executed now;

Done - complete tasks.

You can move the task between the columns as its status changes either manually, or using the option Move n the task menu.

By default, each column represents a single queue of tasks, though In Progress column can be of 2 kinds: simple and composite. A simple column is a single task list. A composite column consists of 2 sub-columns: In Progress and Done (these names cannot be changed). You can use a composite column in order to reflect the status of each task better. Visually the columns have different appearance on the board:

There are some limits on the quantity of columns for each column type:

To Do: more than one column; cannot be composite;

In Progress: more than one column; can be composite;

Done: strictly one column; cannot be composite.

If you would like to change the column’s type, click on the column’s name and choose the desired type for the column. Please mind the following rules:

Upon changing the type from simple to composite, the tasks will migrate into In Progress sub-column;

Upon changing the type from composite to simple, all the tasks will be gathered under one column.

Managing a Column

There is a set of actions you can perform with a column. Let’s have a closer look at the actions possible with each column kind.

Managing a simple column.

To open the column menu click on the button:

The following actions are available to you:

Edit Column: edit column's name, change column's type or kind.

Archive Column: with this option the column as well as all tasks in the column will be archived. You will be able to restore the item from the list of Archived Items. To restore the archived item choose the option Unarchive from the board menu.

Managing a composite column.

For a composite column a new action is added: Add WIP Limits. Learn how to set up a WIP limit here.

Swimlanes

Swimlane is used to visually categorize your tasks on the board. Basically, it’s a field within a board with tasks grouped by a certain feature.

Cut-through swimlane is used to group the tasks from all the columns throughout the board. For example, you can sort all your tasks based on their priority and create swimlanes Blockers, Medium Priority, Later. By doing this, you will visually define which tasks are more important and which ones can be done later.

A swimlane can be created from board menu. For a better navigation swimlanes can be collapsed. To collapse a swimlane just click the icon on the left of the swimlane name. You can also delete swimlanes. Click the name of the swimlane and choose Delete button on the pop up.

If you had several swimlanes on the board, the tasks will be distributed between the remaining swimlanes by the following pattern:

Swimlanes are present above and below: the tasks will be moved to the lower positions of the swimlane located above the deleted swimlane;

Swimlanes are present only above: the tasks will be moved to the lower positions of the swimlane located above the deleted swimlane;

Swimlanes are present only below: the tasks will be moved to the upper positions of the swimlane located below the deleted swimlane.

In case only 2 swimlanes are present on the board, when you remove one of them, the tasks will be grouped together on the board.

WIP Limits

WIP (Work In Progress) Limit - limit to the quantity of the tasks in progress at the same time. WIP limits can be used with Sprint and Kanban boards for To Do and In Progress columns (for both simple and composite). You cannot use WIP limits with Done column.

You can set up task minimum and maximum, as well as both of the parameters. Choose an action from the Column menu Add WIP Limits and set the necessary values.

In case the minimum value is not reached, or the maximum value is exceeded, the limit indicator will change its color to notify you of the problem.

If you need to edit the WIP limit, choose an option Change WIP Limits and set up new values.

Capacity for Backlog

Capacity is one of the WIP limits. This parameter estimates the time needed for a sprint and helps allocating the time between all the tasks. This value is specified only for backlog boards, To Do and In Progress type columns (both for simple and composite). You cannot set capacity for Done column type. Capacity is measured in hours and is related to Estimate value.

To set up Capacity for a column, open a column menu and choose an option Add Backlog Capacity. Put the necessary capacity value (in hours) in a pop-up menu.

To edit the value, choose Change Backlog Capacity option and enter the updated values. Click on Change to confirm the changes.